Category Archives: Nutrition

Some of you know that Jeff and I are living in Mexico for the Winter. It is stunningly beautiful here, warm, and teaming with fresh foods and life. Everyday we wake early, often walking the beach, biking or swimming for a couple of hours first thing before clinic and work calls. When we walk, we’re often strolling hand in hand back to our condo, mid-morning, for another swim in the pool, a little sunbathing and a meditation well before lunch. I feel like a kid who’s having so much fun, I forget to eat!

After being here for almost 2 months, I didn’t notice much that my physical body had changed. It is hot, so I wear a lot of dresses. One day, I grabbed a pair of white pants to wear out to dinner. When I buttoned them up, I noticed several additional inches between me and my waistband. Odd, I checked the size thinking I might have packed the wrong ones to bring, but no this was the snug pair that I’d brought with me from home.

Not a week later, I was speaking with a patient who’d fully actualized her essential self and was just finishing up her Heilkunst treatment with me. She mentioned having lost weight recently citing how easily she was letting go. She was excited to tell me how her daughter, who is a Chef, was the one to have recommended, “The Fast Diet” by a Dr. Michael Mosely and Mimi Spencer. I didn’t think too much about it as I’m not one much for fads of any sort, however, in the same week, I came across this Ted Talk video with Mark Mattson on fasting and ketosis and wondered at the recent phenomenon I was experiencing.

Interesting to me, as I both love and hate fasting! I do it full out a couple times a year. Based on principles of not allowing my body to become so complacent with the influx of cooked or even raw foods, I’ll go to a liquid or mono-food diet for a time to give my body a rest, metabolize hidden islets of toxicity and re-boot the grid with regards to my relationship to food. I love food, I love to cook and I often need to recall that,”I eat to live, not live to eat!”

I know that when I’m ready to know a whole concept, the teacher will appear. In this case, my patient, was the cathartic nudge I needed to figure out why I was naturally and easily dropping weight. I knew that our foremothers and fathers did not have the food availability that we do in these modern times and that often, they were not eating 3 meals a day due to shortage.

Even when I worked on the family farm, often we’d be out in the fields or milking cows before dawn, coming up to the house around 11:00 a.m. or noon for our main meal. The table heaped with meat, green beans boiled to well beyond their death in milk and potatoes, always heaps of potatoes. Then we’d have a smaller supper, usually a sandwich made from the noontime leftovers. Then you’d fall into bed just after the sun was down, spent and fulfilled within my beloved community.

My kids, even though they were mostly raised on farms, naturally ate the same way. They would almost always skip breakfast and desire a decent meal around noon and then a snack-like meal again in the early evening or sometimes not at all. Often, they were easily going over 12 hours without food in their teens as they dictated their own nourishing schedule! I also noticed that my children, now adults, always self-regulated their diets out of their innate volition. I also knew to trust my kid’s innate rhythms, as they were the healthiest people I had the pleasure of observing through their organic unfolding!I was always curious about society’s expectation that we eat three meals and snacks as it always seemed excessive to me. The idea of not eating for longer spans of became clear to me when I read how glycogen gets stored up in the system. In humans, glycogen is made and stored primarily in the cells of the liver and the muscles hydrated with three or four parts of water.Glycogen functions as the secondary long-term energy storage, with the primary energy stores being fats held in adipose tissue. Muscle glycogen is converted into glucose by muscle cells, and liver glycogen converts to glucose for use throughout the body including the central nervous system.

The glycogen’s function is to lovingly take care of you in instances of fight or flight. The fast twitch muscles rely on this substance for your reflexes to think and act fast. On that note, perhaps think of the immediate gratification required by our present society; fast food, fast education crammed into our first 20 years, fast growing crops, fast trades on the stock exchange, children growing up too fast and too soon, fast diagnoses, fast pills and fast sex. Little in our modern world is slow and delicious, as we’re always rushing from one thing to the next. The armouring in our physical bodies speak to this constant gesture of immediate gratification.

The problem becomes that if you’re eating every couple of hours, you’re not only adding to the sugar in your blood, but you’re also rarely getting to the strata of the fat layers stored beneath the glycogen. The state of burning fat is termed “ketosis”. Producing ketones is a desirable state loved by both the kidney and heart, that was formerly controversial by some allopathic scientists.

There is an assumption that if a body is burning a lot of fat for energy, it must not be getting “enough” glucose. However, there is no indication, from studying people on reduced carbohydrate diets, that this is the case. If you can’t periodically get into ketosis, you end up suffering a physiological vicious circle of fight/flight. Then, when you grab a latte for lunch en route to an afternoon meeting, you prevent the system from burning fat, sinking into the slow, heat burning furnace we’re capable of.

Many folks are starving from a lack of micro-nutrients, but they’re also superficially cold both physically and emotionally. This is true for slim individuals too, as folks who are ripped in their musculature are often as armoured as the obese person. Think of the runners who’ve dropped dead and the finish line or the woman with arthritis so bad in her one hundred fifteen pound frame. Even Dr. Mercola speaks to the benefits of intermittent fasting and he’s a really lean dude!

When we do eat it is important to engage consciously, deliberately and prayerfully with our food. In our culture, we’ve mostly forgotten the art of romance with food and who we are eating with. Think how nourishing it can feel to eat together with loved ones and while lingering over a bowl of chowder. My husband, Jeff, when he’s eating something he loves that I’ve prepared will literally moan with each bite, closing his eyes and savouring each proffered chaw. God, how I love to feed him!

So how to solve our glycogen habit you ask? First, we have to stop being junkies and then as Peter Gabriel suggests, we’ve got to “shock the monkey!” First of all cut out the coffee. Coffee suppresses fear and is a big cause for anxiety and sleep issues in our culture. Perhaps deal with the underlying cause. Eat organic fruits and vegetables that resonate with your blood type. We’ll send you the food lists, or you can check out Dr. D’Adamo’s book, “Eat Right For Your Type“, and then one to two days a week, you bring your calories down to a mere five hundred for the day.

The idea is that our physiologies are not really designed to eat three meals a day plus snacks. When was the last time you had to fish, forage or hunt for you food? When you’re hungry, really hungry, your mind gets sharp, your body brilliantly taut and at the ready to smartly outwit that trout.

Where did the false premise of eating every couple of hours come from? It is promoted by dieticians trained to follow government food guides, which in turn arise from inimical forces in the allopathic medical field who make money on your three meals a day choices. This constant consumption of food contributes to obesity, cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Suppressing our innate drives of creativity and desires for love and intimacy, by mouth, is often the socially acceptable drug of choice for a lot of people. I’m suggesting that we solve the underlying cause for the angst and pain we suffer instead and stop being so resigned to it; go ahead and shock the monkey! See the stuff that you’re really made of.

This is also the basis for Dr. Mosley and Mimi Spencer’s “The Fast Diet” (although his use of coffee I can’t condone especially for all other blood types except ‘A’). And, no, that doesn’t mean you’re eating like you’re in a blitz! Think the other kind of “fast,” the spiritual one. Folks have been fasting for religious reasons for thousands of years. It is for the purpose of spiritual transformation, getting into the strata of your being-ness, plumbing the depths of your intimate relationship to God. If you’re an atheist, then just think of how your organs and health will benefit.

On five hundred calorie days, it also means slowly and lovingly savoring a farm-fresh egg and some organic cottage cheese with half a grapefruit perhaps late morning, for example, and then a beautiful little stir-fry early evening. If you’re wanting to get back to your healthy weight, have clearer thoughts and a healthier body, Mosley suggests engaging thusly on this fast two days per week and if you’re seeking to maintain your health, purging your system of unwanted toxins or islets of organization, then one day a week is sufficient. It actually is a a lot easier than you might think! Read the testimonials of folks who’ve let go of hundreds of excess weight at the back of the book.

When I was doing the research for this article, I queried my 18 year old daughter, Adie, who is a natural athlete. She trains Olympic-level horses and must remain in a state of self-governance with regards to her heath and regimen.

“Adie, what do you do when you feel hungry?” I heard her pause at the other end of the phone, “Well, I acknowledge the need for a moment and then just let it pass, really. It’s just hunger, it’s not like I’m going to die or anything. Often it’s just a call for more water so I drink, or recognize it for what it is and then just let it go or re-engage more deeply with what I’m working on. I don’t let it dictate my actions as the more I eat, the more food I want.”

I gave a lot of thought to Adie’s words. It is true that I answered the call for food too often myself. Even though I’ve naturally purged a dress size or two, I’m going to grab that monkey by the tail and give him a good yank! Also, I NEVER underestimate happiness, beauty, the beach and good geography for allowing a gal to simply let go.

“Cover me when I run Cover me through the fire Something knocked me out ‘ the trees Now I’m on my knees Cover me, darling please Monkey, monkey, monkey Don’t you know you’re going to shock the monkey”

At Arcanum Wholistic Clinic, there are certain questions we go through at the initial consultation with patients to discern whether or not they qualify for homeopathic medicine. Here is a brief outline of some of the things we typically discuss. You can test yourself to see if these are 10 Things that you do at home in order to better your health. If you still suffer symptoms, give us a call, we’re here to help.

Number 1

Drink, drink, drink enough pure pH balanced water! If you can’t drink water from a well or mountain stream, then you will need to properly filter, and re-mineralize, the water you have. Pure water alone can cure symptoms such as asthma, allergies, arthritis, angina, migraine headaches, hypertension, raised cholesterol, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, depression, and diabetes. If you are ever thirsty during the day, you are actually suffering the effects of dehydration and need to increase your water intake to approximately 2.5 to 3.5 litres of well-water (avoid chlorinated or fluoridated water as much as possible).

Number 2

Nutrition is totally individualized based on certain typologies. A healthy individual will do well to stick close to their Blood Type Diet based on Dr. D’Adamo’s research, Eat Right For Your Type. While there has been controversy over his research, we can affirm his findings based on 30 years of live blood analysis. If you are perpetually fatigued, 10-20 pounds overweight and suffering some mild symptoms, we will recommend further approaches that will balance glandular imbalances, cravings, and addictions.

Number 3

Dormition, or sleep, is also instrumental to our health and well-being. Babies need about 12 hours of sleep per night. Adults, in the summer, need 8-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep and in the winter 9-10 hours in a completely darkened environment. We know that the hormones Melatonin and Serotonin need complete darkness and a good deal of time to fully complete the cycle of restoring our bodies and minds for waking consciousness.

Number 4

Recreation, which also includes exercise, is as critical as any other aspect of regimen. Our spiritual, emotional and physical health is dependent on our capacity to simply be at play! If you think about it, we’ve worked in the fields, ridden horses, or travelled long distances by foot for almost 6,000 years of human history. At no time have we been so sedentary and our physical bodies are not abiding easily to this new way of life. Diseases related to obesity like diabetes, heart, and hyper-tension are at an all-time high!

Number 5

Another area we work in is a principled detoxification of your organism. Most of us suffer the effects, unknowingly, from heavy metals, including mercury. When we think of mercury, we tend to think of metal amalgams in teeth that have been used barbarically since the American War of 1812. For example, mercury is contained in everyday things such as: adhesives, air conditioning filters, antiseptics, batteries, body powders, burning newspaper, building materials, calomel lotions, commercial cereals, fabric softeners, insecticides, laxatives, lumber, paints, paper products, Preparation H, and some soft contact lens solutions. Mercury can cause adrenal dysfunction, allergies, hair loss, birth defects, Autism, Alzheimer’s, cerebral palsy, anorexia, brain damage, dizziness, drowsiness, eczema, abscesses in the gums, hearing loss, hyperactivity, immune dysfunction, hypothyroidism, kidney damage, migraines, anxiety, nerve-fibre degeneration, rashes, tremors and suicidal tendencies. In both Canada and the U.S. the allopathic flu-shot contains toxic levels of the preservative Thimerosal which contains mercury. Mercury is just one of 15 heavy metals that we will safely detoxify our patients from using homeopathic chelation therapy.

Number 6

Geopathic stress affects us all. The word is derived from the Greek words geo (of the earth) and pathos (suffering). Most individuals have felt a sense of uneasiness when walking into someone’s home, place of work, store or even a tract of land. While a location can be altered with decorations or Feng Shui, other aspects are not always as easily alterable. Fault lines, electromagnetic fields, underwater veins, mines, man-made foundations, public utilities (sewage) and certain mineral deposits can contribute to unhealthy sleep patterns, as well as emotional and physical symptoms. If you notice irritability, stiffness, soreness, depression, restlessness and a lack of tolerance, you may need to test your home for Geopathic stress.

Number 7

Using principled supplementation based on your individual needs can be a powerful aid. Did you know that you would need to eat 45 bowls of spinach to equal the nutrition of one bowl in 1945? Also, our soils are so deplete, you would need to eat 200 loaves of bread to equal one made at the turn of the last century. Again, keep in mind that you are a very finely mechanized, spiritualized being and that you want to base your self-prescriptions on principle also in this realm. After seeing results from 30 years of research in Live Blood Analysis, I know that herbs and even vitamins can create the illusion of health, or in some cases, even cause harm. It is best if you can derive as much of your nutrition from whole, live, and organic foods as you can.

Number 8

Most folks are surprised when I say the true cause of all diseases start in the mind. Our hearts and minds carry a significant burden of unresolved emotions which, over time, produces armoring and rigidification in the body similar to rigamortis. Physical symptoms are really the last phase of the process of emotional and spiritual disturbances that have not been wholly discharged. When we use the homeopathic remedies to walk a person logically back through their timeline of emotional or physical shocks and traumas, they are amazed at how much content still prevails at their core needing to be expunged. The law of cure does not mess around, it will raise for your viewing pleasure, all that still has you puppeted on a set of unconscious strings!

Number 9

Resonant relationships are critical to our emotional health and ecology. In our system of medicine, we define health as being orgastically potent in all aspects of one’s life. Whether that is through resonant union with your Beloved or through the work that reflects your soul’s yearning to know its self, it is critical to surround yourself with loving and nourishing friends and family. False precepts like dogmatic religion that keep a person tied to a toxic marriage bonds only breeds symptoms and disease which happiness and fulfillment do not. As a Physician, I have to conclude that if unhappiness breeds symptoms, that God doesn’t want you to live in abject misery.

Number 10

Relax! Take time off and release yourself from the constant lure of work! Sidney J. Harris said, “The time to relax is when you don’t have the time for it.” He was right! Find a contemplative hobby like strolling by the ocean or in the woods, writing poetry, painting or photography so that you can access your muse and the more delicate meanderings of your heart and soul, or just nap or meditate on it!

Ok, that wraps up our 10 health tips. Which ones are you going to start to work on? Please let us know your thoughts by commenting below as we’d love to hear from you!

Stress is feeling impotent to execute a plan or desire. It is the ultimate in feeling thwarted against the capacity to discharge an expectation into a state of realization. In health, it feels like, “Ah, I did it! I put the effort in and there it is, a big beautiful bouncing baby project, isn’t she lovely?! I’m so proud! Now I can finally bask in the glory of utter fulfillment!” As a healthy person, I will have perfect trust and faith that my effort will ultimately lead to fulfillment of a desire; it is just a matter of time and it will. I can trust in my healthy will and wisdom to get me to this state of full actualization. Right?!

However, if your history with stress indicates that the arrival point never seems to come to fruition, it’s outside your reach, some insidious force seems to pervade that sabotages the whole damn thing, leaving you feeling like a bloody failure. This cyclical pattern is just playing itself out yet AGAIN!! Guilt, victimization, and self-hatred mounts and you do your very best not to take it out on those you love. It is so hard, though, as the frustration seems to leak from your nostrils and ears. You feel yourself seething with it below decks.

Also, you notice that weird things are starting to occur in your body; you haven’t slept through the night in months, your hair may be falling out in the shower, you’ve been having mild gallbladder attacks or kidney stones , your sex drive is dried up and mostly gone, you’re suffering heartburn, and your craving for sweets is off the charts, you’re peeing like a racehorse way too frequently. What the heck is going on?

You feel the anger and frustration mounting. Perhaps it is a pattern around finances, the full realization of one’s inner value in the external ambient. Perhaps your inner milieu wants that juicy job sailing tourists around the world, but for now you’re stuck as a palliative care nurse (true story, btw). The prevailing feeling being that you trained for that job and you’re resigned to remaining at it until you can magically conjure the readies to make the transition. Perhaps you’re still living out of your parents’ expectations. On paper, though, it feels like you may never garner the gumption or resources to make the leap. For now, your feet are stuck in cement. Argghhhhhh!

Although you have the pictures of sailboats plastered to your walls at home, it still feels like a far-off pipe dream. What about all those affirmations, “I am sailing the world, I feel the ocean breeze on my face, I am cutting the jib!” And then, the reality of waking at winter’s dawn to catch the bus in the dark and cold invades your spirit with the most brutal of realities. You feel raw, sore, and jagged inside. What happened to that wee kid in you that used to race with the wind on your bike, build forts, and dream about becoming a rock star?!

You ask yourself, over and over again, what am I missing? How come everyone else seems to be realizing their dreams, but I can’t seem to get past token actions of having bought the organic sunscreen? Am I not deserving enough? Haven’t I done my time? When is it my turn to fully actualize my essential self and my dreams? Does this sound familiar to you? Are you tired of hearing the tirades of angst in your head?

We’ve got you! We lived this matrix prior as well. We know that stress is the #2 killer (just after allopathic drugs) in North America. We’re going to help you get out of the pain and suffering that has you secretly rocking back and forth, sucking on your thumb in that broom closet or bathroom stall when you think no one’s looking. We see you and we also have the tools to help.

There are 3 jurisdictions of Heilkunst Medicine. The first is Regimen (nutrition, hydration, dormition, recreation, coition). Basically, you must stop messing around! Cut out the refined sugars and carbs, and eat more for your blood type. This is really critical. We have other blogs (3 Streams in Heilkunst) on why this is, so go read those if you need further justification. Start drinking 2.5 – 3 litres of pure spring water per day (ABC’s of Healthy Regimen).

Start exercising for your blood type (Exercise for my Blood Type) and playing at a sport you love. I’m a “B” blood type and I love weekly hikes up into the hills where I live, yoga several times per week, and my meditation practice. Also, start winding down earlier in the evening, reading that self-help book or perhaps a novel about 45-50 minutes before bedtime and lights out. It is really important that you kill the lights and computer stimulation so that your autonomic nervous system can depart gracefully into sleep.

Sex is brilliant! If you’re not thusly conjoint with a resonant beloved partner, sex on your own is pretty delicious too. Love on yourself in the same way, using the same gestures that you would have your supreme lover engage with you. The idea being that you can’t wholly plumb love in your ambient until you’ve nailed down those delicious romantic gestures from inside. Love and romance is fostered from the inside out.

Also, the crazy thing is that while fever invokes a healthy immune function in a child, sex actually is the healthy expression of rage, anger, and stress in an adult. The more you teach your body, through pleasure, how to feel tension, charge, discharge, and then relaxation in its cells and the autonomic nervous system, the more it will recall this same gesture in everyday life. If you’re having trouble, though, executing through intimacy we can help with character analysis and resonant remediation.

The second jurisdiction of Heilkunst Medicine, is medicine proper. It’s peeling back the timeline onion of your stress-riddled adulthood, which no doubt stemmed from how you were raised as a child (Sigmunda would agree). In many cases, it is also anchored in your childhood, the genetic miasms, chthonic fears and ideogenic beliefs. It can take a bit of time, in conjunction with pathic remedies like lycopodium (key rx for impotence), aurum metallicum (working with little reward), sepia (‘if someone asks me for one more thing …’), staphysagria (repeated patterns of victimization), lachesis (guilt, resentment, shame) and ignatia (long term grief and disappointment).

We also employ brilliant flower essences like cherry plum (where your back is seemingly against the proverbial wall), white chestnut (for you cycling through the same old patterns over and over again), larch (for a lack of confidence), etc.

The third jurisdiction is therapeutic education, or Anthroposophical (study of man) Orgonomy (addressing armour/beliefs). This is the area where we help you to stop reinfecting yourself with the old states of mind that no longer serve you. This occurs more in tandem, or after, the diseases are mostly cured and your timeline resolved. Going after your character structure for why you felt you needed to live feeling thwarted and impotent in the first place is part of an illusion of belief. Poverty consciousness (not just about money) is, after all just a state of mind, albeit a powerful one. It can be cured just like the others.

Start, perhaps, by taking a look, at the following resources and see how they impact on you:

Conscious creation plays a very big part in replacing the subconscious program of feeling victimized by stress-filled circumstances. You are ordained with the capacity to self-rescue yourself from the habitual armouring, perpetuating chronic beliefs that you’re not enough. It is not about more doing or effort! It IS about having the health to identify where you’re wrong thinking patterns exist and having a deep desire to change them.

The final frontier of Heilkunst Medicine (or Romantic Science), the complete medical system, is the realm of using your very own God-imbued wisdom to excavate you from your mired beliefs. This is not the illusory or superficial “law of attraction,” although the gesture came from same roots, with medicine and regimen, you can more permanently exact the life that you’ve always wanted for yourself by “BEING” the answer you want to “BE” in the world starting now, right this minute, impressing this new data onto your subconscious and employing it as the change agent on your behalf. Your ambient will buck up to this new expectation, it is the LAW of RESONANCE. The thing is, do you have to strengthen your muscles of FAITH to hold the charge? Are you ready?

If you’re reading this, you have our upmost sympathy. I know from treating folks with IBS, Crohn’s, and Colitis over the last 12 years that when you first come to us that you may be deeply despairing and given up much hope. Yes, we know about the drugs and the limited prognosis on the allopathic side of the fence. We also knot the limitations of most alternative therapies too. Believe me, we’ve lived this too with our own issues. We get it.

Now, I know you want to know what we’re going to do about it. Well, the answer is multiple and dynamic. The first thing that we want to know is what is your timeline peppered with in the way of events? What are the nature of your physical and emotional traumas? Also, what is your present state of mind?

Did you know that fear of losing control can be a big emotional aspect of this disease matrix? Of course you do. Did you know that unexpressed rage, frustration and anger is also a very large component too? Yes, you secretly have known that too. Now, you want to know what we’re going to help you do about it, don’t you? Give me a second, we’re getting there.

Ok, now that we’ve got some of the “state of mind” sussed out, we’re going to recommend basic things like slowly integrating high doses of a broad spectrum probiotics and fermented foods to replenish your microbiome as well as EFA’s (Essential Fatty Acids) to help restore the gut and start working on assimilation. Lots of folks with Crohn’s have missed a gut full of healthy bacteria even since birth when they should have grabbed a big gulp of probiotics from their Mom when passing down through the birth canal. This deficit is a big part of the Crohn’s symptoms picture. The other aspects is to ensure that you’re getting enough pure spring water, sleep and pristine nutrition, based on your blood type typology, will also be key.

Then, we’re going to provide you a dynamic set of homeopathic remedies specifically for emotional support and drainage and organ support. One of the key rx, Arsenicum, for IBS, Crohn’s and Colitis will have a description like this excerpt from Dr. Henry Clarke’s Materia Medica. These are some of the symptoms that we will apply the law of cure for:

12. Abdomen.?Compression in the region of the liver.?Swelling of the spleen.?Excessive pains in the abdomen, principally on the left side, and often with great anguish in the abdomen.?Inflation of the abdomen.?Ascites.?Swelling of the abdomen as in ascites.?Hard bloated abdomen.?Violent cutting pains, cramp-like pains, digging, pulling, tearing, and gnawing in the abdomen.?Attacks of colic occur chiefly after having drunk or eaten, or in the night, and are often accompanied by vomiting or diarrhœa, with cold, internal heat, or cold sweat.?Burning pains with anguish.?Sensation of cold, or insupportable burning in the abdomen.?Pain, as from a wound in the abdomen, chiefly on coughing and laughing.?Swelling and induration of the mesenteric glands.?Much flatulency, with rumbling in the abdomen.?Flatulency of a putrid smell.?Painful swelling of the inguinal glands.?Ulcer above the navel.

13. Stool and Anus.?Tenesmus, with burning in the anus.?Involuntary and unperceived evacuations.?Violent diarrhœa, with frequent evacuations, nausea, vomiting, thirst, great weakness, colic, and tenesmus.?Nocturnal diarrhœa, and renewal of the diarrhœa, after having drunk or eaten.?Burning stools, with violent pains in the bowels, with tenesmus, thirst, worse after eating.?Burning and corrosive evacuations; fæces with mucus, or bilious, sanguineous, serous, painless, involuntary, &c., of greenish, yellowish, whitish colour, or brownish and blackish; fetid and putrid evacuations; evacuations of undigested substances.?Emission of mucus by the anus, with tenesmus.?Prolapsus of the rectum: with much pain.?Itching, pain as from excoriation, and burning in the rectum and in the anus, as well as in the hæmorrhoidal tumours, chiefly at night.?Shootings in the hæmorrhoidal tumours.

The state accompanying state of Mind in Arsenicum, will have a picture like this:

1. Mind.?Melancholy, sometimes of a religious character, sadness, care, chagrin, cries and complaints.?Anguish, driving one out of bed at night, and from one place to another in the daytime.?Restlessness.?Great fear of being left alone.?Anger, with anxiety, restlessness and sensation of coldness.?Anxiety, restlessness, and excessive anguish which allows no rest, principally in the evening in bed, or in the morning on waking, and often with trembling, cold sweat, oppression of the chest, difficulty of breathing, and fainting fits.?Anxiety of conscience, as if a crime had been committed.?Inconsolable anguish, with complaints and lamentation.?Hypochondriacal humour, with restlessness and anxiety.?Fear of solitude, of spectres, and of robbers, with desire to hide oneself.?Indecision and changeable humour, which demands this at one time, that at another, and rejects everything after having obtained it.?Despair; he finds no rest, esp. at night, with anguish.?Despondency, despair, weariness of life, inclination to suicide, or excessive fear of death, which is sometimes believed to be very near.?Too great sensibility and scrupulousness of conscience, with gloomy ideas, as if one had offended all the world.?Ill-humour, impatience, vexation, inclination to be angry, repugnance to conversation, inclination to criticise, and great susceptibility.?Caustic and jesting spirit.?Extreme sensibility of all the organs; all noise, conversation, and clear lights are insupportable.?Great apathy and indifference.?Great weakness of memory.?Stupidity and dulness.?Delirium.?Delirium, with great flow of ideas.?Loss of consciousness, and of sensation; dotage; maniacal actions and frenzy.?Madness; loss of mind (from the abuse of alcoholic drinks).

Source: http://www.homeoint.org/clarke/a/ars.htm

Now you can start to piece together what happens when we apply the law of nature, like cures like to resolve the underlying cause. This is only one of many remedies that will typically be used in your case en route to the Genetic Miasms, the root cause for chronic disease, including yours. We will also work on the psyche and the spiritual aspects of why you incurred the disease in the first place, so that you never re-infect yourself with that old state of mind and reinfect yourself.

Perhaps one day soon, you’ll be writing us a testimonial like this one:

“I’ve recently been prompted to return to the Crohn’s/colitic/IBS community by a friend since I’m one of those people that managed to break the vicious cycle of these conditions.

In 1999, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s. My case was severe but not atypical: much inflammation and cramping, fistula, abscess. Instead of acute food sensitivities, my reactions were usually expressed by a bowel obstruction every few weeks. 5 months later I had lost 40 lbs (from 110 lb on a 5’5″ frame). I was non-responsive to all of the meds and diets, the bowel resection confirmed necrosis of the tissues.

I had started seeing a sequential homeopath (Heilkunst practitioner) shortly after the surgery and relapsed 4 months later. I gave up on the meds at that point and chose a 100% holistic treatment. I figured that I had nothing to lose if steroids and surgery were going to get me only 4 months of peace!

7 years later I can say that it took about a year to feel like my life was normal again and another 2 years before I was symptom-free. It was a process, not a panacea. Potent and complete probiotics are key, Essential Fatty Acids and nutritional supplementation to maintain a minimum level of nutrition while assimilation is poor. Good day-to-day nutrition, as possible. Environmental doctors provide IV supplementation, it was certainly a life saver for me.

Believe it or not, I’m hugely grateful for the experience now. I learned so much about myself and the how and why of what made me sick. Now working as a sequential homeopath myself, I’m not advocating abandoning whatever treatment you are following, just trying to say that there is hope and lots of help out there.”

You’re keen and ready to get going. Perhaps you’ve just had your initial consultation with one of our Heilkunst Practitioners and you’re looking over your food list with a mix of enthusiasm and overwhelm. Or maybe you’ve been working with your glandular or metabolic type and you’re now ready to take that next step in your health by stepping up into your blood type diet.

Now that you are getting to know what foods are most optimum for you based on typology, you can rest assure that you’ve got 30 years of live blood analysis on your side along with Dr. D’Adamo’s research confirming that this is the way you’ll eat for the rest of your lifetime. No more whip sawing on fad diets for you! You’re now ready to look at your corresponding exercise program also for the same long lasting results for your health and well-being.

Naturopathic doctor, Joseph Christiano, author of Blood Types, Body Types, and You, and co-creator of The Blood Type Workout. “When you follow a generic program that is one-size-fits-all, you’re never going to tap into your genetic potential.” He adds that following your Blood Type Workout promises fast, long-lasting results enabling you to meet your long-term goals by harnessing the most resonant approach to exercise for you, ““The blood type is a powerful genetic fingerprint, and there is a chemical reaction to the food you eat, your workouts, and your blood.”

Let’s get right into what you’ve come to this page to learn about so that you can close the lid of your computer, or turn off your hand-held, and get right to the exercise program that is most suited to you and your blood type:

Type O

You’re the oldest blood type on the planet and your genetic heritage speaks to your caveman, or paleo, history. You do best avoiding the typical North American Diet of carbs, dairy, stimulants like coffee, and refined sugars. Your exercise regime speaks to your aggressive nature as a hunter and capacity to defend yourself from wily predators. Also, your cardio regime helps you to metabolize all the meat you eat and stay emotionally positive and enthusiastic. O types who languish around or who are too sedentary will feel depressed and spend too much time in their intellect worrying.

Best workouts: You’re just naturally strong and athletic. You occasionally marvel at those strong arms and legs that just seem to come with your inherent package as an O blood type. While you no longer have to hunt for your food you still seek the same type of exertion as you did when you formerly had to chase down your meals, gnawing the meat off the bones of your prey. Here’s a list of your ideal types of exercise:

Your DNA comes from ancient Asian farmers. Think of the more meditative action of planting rice in the terraced paddies in Japan. While you are inherently active, your movements will be slower, more deliberate as you plant those individual crops for your more vegetarian diet. Your plate will be overflowing with salads, stir fried vegetables, fruits, with some whole grains, fish and chicken on the side.

Best workouts: If your workouts are too intense, you’ll cause stress in your body by raising the cortisol levels which will cause stiffness and muscle fatigue. Think of a Tibetan Monk and perhaps you’ll find your inner meditator. Here’s a list of your ideal types of exercise:

Your ancestors bought some animals from the O Blood Types and took off nomadically to Europe. You were smart enough to know that if you slaughtered those animals for food, your supply of nourishment would run dry, so you developed a secondary molecule onto your originating blood type enabling you to effectively metabolize dairy. You also do best with foods shot with a bow and arrow or as I say with humour to my patients, “B’s do best eating the animals found in the movie Bambi!” You need the purine found in animals trying to make a quick escape like rabbit, venison, lamb and their accompanying organs like liver.

Bestworkouts: Think of yourself as a cross between an O and an A Blood Type; too much cardio and it produces stress in your body, but not enough and you’ll suffer laxness and depression as well. Here are your best exercises for your type:

Hiking

Tennis

Cycling

Swimming

Resistance Training

Type AB

You’re the most recent blood type on the planet. I’ve met few AB Blood Types in my practice over the last dozen years. Your DNA is a hybrid—you have elements of both a Type A and B. You need a cross between a dairy based, higher purine diet like a European and also the fruits, veggies and whole grains of the Asian rice paddy growing farmer. Red meat is not for you.

Best workouts: Again, you’re a hybrid so high-power cardio is not ideal for you and you’ll need more than that meditating Tibetan Monk. Also, you have to be mindful that you’ll harbour anger with too little movement. You love the feeling of being limber and strong in your joints and muscles. Here’s a list of your ideal work out regime:

Dance

Golf

Hiking

Walking

Yoga

Tai Chi

*These exercises are guidelines and not written in stone. Try to mix it up and see if a 5 day a week routine speaks to you using workouts that feel most resonant to you and your blood type. Try to embody the principles of each typology when choosing the right exercise program for you and you’ll live wholly out of health and grace for a lifetime.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

~ Mathew 5:13-16

Salt has always had a high value for our health and as a commodity. In the ancient world Roman soldiers received their wages in salt. The Greeks considered salt to be an essence of the Divine. At one time Mosaic Law required that all offerings to God presented by the Israelites contain some form of salt (Lev.2:13). When Jesus spoke to his disciples letting them know that they were “the salt of the earth,” they understood it to mean that they were very high in value. While the universal importance of salt is now cloaked in hearsay and allopathic mystique, we know that individuals advised to go on a low sodium diet suffer greater risks of heart disease and diabetes. All iodized salt should be banned outright as it is completely stripped of minerals and actually harmful to our health. It is time to build the true value of salt back into our diets and here is the why and how of it!

Solé Brine (pronounced So-lay)

Did you know that most folks are deplete in minerals? If you think of your bones, like the superstructure of a building with all the tissues, organs and skin draped over it, you want to make sure that this scaffolding is supporting you for about 100 years or so. The reason we’re deplete is because most of us don’t drink water from brooks or streams that have picked up minerals on the way to your hand pump in the yard for almost 100 years. The other reason is that our foods are also bereft of proper minerals required by our bodies, given that our soils are stripped. Ross Bishop states, “A 1999 study from the University of Wisconsin found that three decades of the overuse of nitrogen in farming has destroyed the soil’s fertility, causing it to age the equivalent of 5,000 years in 30 … For the amount of manganese you used to get in 10 green beans you would have to eat 300. You have to eat 11 bowls of spinach to receive the same amount of copper that you used to get in one bowl. To receive the same amount of iron in one tomato prior to 1945, you would have to eat 1,938 tomatoes today. Carrots used to have 10,000 IU of beta-carotene, now they have less that 70. Wheat used to be 40% protein, whereas now it is less that 10%. It goes on. . .” Even our bread is no longer stone ground, where minerals used to be baked right into whole grain goodness.

What is a modern person supposed to do? Well, we can supplement 84 minerals from a whole super food from a place on earth that still does not have any recorded pollution of any kind. Bio-available minerals from a Solé Brine solution derived from Himalayan salt is an ideal source, even showing the most amazing results in dark field microscopy.

Dark Field Microscope Analysis

In a dark field microscope analysis done on 3 groups of individuals in December 2002 and January 2003, it was observed that the solution created some amazing alterations to the blood as you can see below. The simple test entailed taking a drop of blood from a person and analyzing it, then feeding a teaspoon of brine solution with a glass of water to this person, and 30 minutes later, repeating the blood test.

Before brine ingestion:

After brine ingestion:

The “before” pictures clearly show clumped blood, the “after” pictures show a more fluid blood, with more space between the blood cells, a healthier blood. (Source: http://www.breathofsalt.com/brine.htm)

Benefits of Drinking Brine

– The brine supplies the body with 84 minerals that the body can store and utilize over a period of up to 24 hours.

– It can raise the pH balance to a healthy alkaline level closer to an ideal 7.2.

– Solé can help to “sweep away” the sediment associated with arthritic deposits, kidney and gall stones.

– When the body has its resources met, it is less likely to have negative cravings for harmful foods.

– It can help to cleanse tissues, muscular, organs and skin congestion.

Solé (So-lay) is named for the supersaturated solution of water and Himalayan crystal salt. It is made up of the primal properties of pure solar light energy of these pink rocks immersed in water. In essence, a liquid materialization of captured sunlight! “Sol,” from the Latin for sun, is literally fluid light energy captured in a mason jar for your ultimate benefit. After 24 hours, the positive ions from the mineral rocks surround the negative ions of the molecules of water and then alternatively the negative ions of the salt surround the positive ions of the water molecules in a polaric dance, resulting in hydrolysis (a chemical reaction in which a compound reacts with water to produce other compounds).

This whole new chemical structure really isn’t salt or water anymore, creating a whole new vibration that our body wholly assimilates for its own use to heal inflammation, setting an example of primal whole health for our entire organism. It’s like hitting a reset button! Our organism remembers the primordial nature of our fluid, light imbued creator in a teaspoon. The vibratory frequency of the Solé reminds us how to structure our anatomy after a healthy bio-chemical model; a balanced and oscillating being in homeostasis respecting its inherent polarities.

For this reason, Solé brine is best taken on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning so that there are few other influences in the body. Just one teaspoon of brine in pure water at this time will also promote regularity, as you may find yourself keen to eliminate stool within 30 minutes of taking your morning dose. Some folks need to work up to the one teaspoon, even starting with a drop as the vibratory frequency is that powerful, especially in organisms that are more challenged with a greater need for healing. Within minutes, the whole stomach and intestines are stimulated, affecting digestion and metabolism as conductivity is increased in the body, ultimately affecting circulation and eliminating excess toxicity and inappropriate mineralization in joints. The salty brine allows your body’s currents to flow in freedom as intended.

Balance the Body’s pH Factor and Get Rid of Heavy Metals

The Neutralizing Effect of Salt

“The healing properties of salt are also known in allopathic medicine. The largest and oldest salt works in Europe occupies the royal salt mine of Wieliczka, Poland, just 7.5 miles outside of Krakow. Here, a hospital was carved out of the expansive salt mountain, seven hundred forty feet below the surface, specifically for asthmatics and patients with lung disease and allergies. Several thousand patients have been successfully treated in this hospital. The healing rate is astonishingly over 90%. Recognition of the healing effects of salt chambers has influenced the construction of a similar underground spa located in the salt mine of Berchtesgaden in Germany. The therapeutic benefits of long-term residency inside the healing salt chambers are allopathically acknowledged. The healing effects were originally thought to be related to the purity of the air within the mine’s chambers. However, if it was only a question of the purity of the air, why was the air in the cave so healthy, and the air above-surface so unhealthy? One cause has been determined. Our houses are charged with electromagnetic devices, such as TVs, stereos, computers, microwave ovens and the basic electric currents running through our walls. And, when not at home, we hold cell phones to our ears while driving in our cars and walking through our daily lives. This electro-smog causes an excess of positively charged ions that disturb the balance between the positively and negatively charged particles. Further, it creates an excess of positively charged, chemically unbound particles in the air. Only thirty seconds on a cell phone are enough to open up our blood-brain-barrier, a natural barrier that protects our brain from toxins, for eight hours. A Swedish study showed that ninety percent of the women who used a copper-T I.U.D. as their birth control method, while simultaneously using cell phones, developed uterine cancer; the cause being that the I.U.D. functioned as a transmitter and receiver of unnatural, dissonant vibrations.” (Source:http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/sea_salt.htm)

Not only is the brine helpful with the pH balance in the body and preventing most diseases such as Cancer, it is also a natural chelator, releasing harmful heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic, lead and the calcified deposits contributing to arthritic complaints. It will break down the molecular structure of any unwanted matter, just as it will remove hard calcium build up in cooking pots or a teapot. The salt even creates a chemical reaction, replacing the bad with the good through a process of metabolising unwanted islets of cell organization in the body (as illustrated in the images above), helping to digest unwanted stored foods when you’re converting over to the foods that are right for your blood type. The unwanted protein structures are eliminated through the the urogenital system.

The Healing Power of Brine

Every human organism is different and at varying levels of health. When first engaging with a whole superfood such as Solé, you are taking into your body life energy that can have a powerful effect. For those who are suffering more armoring and a more protracted state of disease, please be mindful by starting slowing with just a drop of brine in a cup of water and then working your way up to a teaspoon in a cup of water over a period of time. WARNING: While brine baths have a positive effect on many ailments, they are also demanding on your circulatory system. Please consider your age and your health. If you suffer from weak or poor heart circulation, are pregnant or have any health problems, always consult your health professional first.

The Recipe For Making Solé Brine Solution

We make ours in a small to medium mason jar with a plastic lid (the metal lid will rust over time). Place 3-4 rock chunks (Health Food Stores can order in, or you can buy them right off of the internet) in the jar, and cover with pure spring water or properly filtered well water. Tap water with chlorine or fluoride is not recommended in any form. To obtain a supersaturated solution, add enough salt that some of the solid chunk remains, unable to melt anymore. At this point, you’ll know that the the liquid hasn’t any molecular capacity to absorb anymore of the salt within a 24 hour period. Your brine is now ready. Start with one drop in a cup of water first thing in the morning at least 15 minutes before you have breakfast. As the salt diminishes, you can add more salt rock and top up with water.

Suggested Applications

Brushing Your Teeth:

Solé brine works wonders also balancing pH in your mouth, helping to attend to the cause of unwanted bacteria that contributes to canker sores, bad breath and bleeding gums. Let us know, and we’ll go after the root issue with curative homeopathic medicine.

Sore Throat Gargle:

Place up to a teaspoon of the solution in a cup of water, as if you’re preparing your brine, and gargle until your throat feels better. Rinse and repeat about 3-4 times over the course of a day.

Sinus Bath In Your Neti Pot:

Sinus congestion can be helped immensely by running brine solution through them. Just prepare the brine as you normally would to drink, fill your neti pot and run through your sinus cavities.

The Brine Bath:

I use a brine bath for any kind of skin affection, bug bites, joint or muscle pain. I exercise about an hour six days a week and I use my baths to relax, help strengthen my immune function and detoxify. In order to maximize the effect of the therapeutic salt bath, you need to ensure you have the right concentration of salt to water in order to obtain the maximum osmotic exchange. For about 100-200 litres (27-32 gallons), at least 1kg (2.2 lbs.) of natural salt is required. Also, the bath’s temperature should be as close to 37 degrees (97 degrees Fahrenheit) as possible. Plan to stay immersed in the bath for about 20-30 minutes. During this time, the body will reach the same salt concentration both inside and out, a primal prenatal state liken to before birth.

This primordial ionic mineralization will stimulate natural cell growth in your living cell layers. If you have any bio-energetic weak areas, the bath will help to balance the natural flow of energy, releasing the ill effects from any unnatural accumulation. This is called homeostasis, which is the desired outcome. Apparently, the detox bath can be compared to a 3 day fast, according to EMR Labs, LLC. (Source: http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/sea_salt.htm)

Due to the sodium chloride content, similar to a type of naturally safe chlorine, folks can use a hot-tub, pool, or even tub-bath that uses natural salt and be assured of it’s disinfecting properties. EMR Labs, LLC recommends that detox brine baths are typically the most beneficial at the shift in moon phases, at the new moon, or at full moon, for optimal release of toxicity.

Brine Steam Inhalation for Asthma or Bronchitis:

Before Heilkunst Medicine, my son suffered repeated respiratory tract issues. Asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis, and ear infections plagued him during his young years. During the winter months, when he was most affected, he was often seen kneeling on the floor in the kitchen over a hot pot of water with dissolved salt in it. The solution requires about 10% salt per water volume and you can drape a cotton t-towel over the sufferers head for 10-30 minutes depending on the severity of the infection. The longer period is required for the brine to capture and bind to the poisonous deposits in the lungs helping to produce a productive mucus that will be coughed to the surface to be excreted depending on the health of the individual.

Arthritis and Gout:

Treat the underlying cause using the principles of Heilkunst Medicine. I wish I’d known this when I cared for an ailing uncle who had gout/diabetic feet with open sores, about 30 years ago. Internally, follow the general directions above for ingesting Solé brine daily on an empty stomach. Be sure to drink between 2-3 litres of water a day (2 to 3 quarts) over the course of the day to create a tide to wash away the mineralization and uric acid associated with arthritis and gout suffering. You can also soak a cloth in pure brine solution (about 26%) and make a cold poultice, applying it to the infected areas. It will sting, but it will work. Wrap in a dry cloth to keep clean.

Osteoporosis:

Treat the underlying cause using the principles of Heilkunst Medicine. Use the same general recipe above for Solé taking up to 1 tsp. in fresh spring water. Be sure to drink 2-3 litres (2-3 quarts) of fresh spring water every day in order to create a tidal bore in the body, washing the inappropriate mineralized debris from the body. You can also make a warm poultice with a concentration of the brine (at least 10%) and ½ oz of salt for every 4 oz of water. As well, you can fill a cotton or linen bag with salt chunks and heat in the oven to 125-140 degrees F. Remove the bag and apply it to your aching back, joints or bathe with them. Water at body temperature (around 97 degrees F.) is perfect for this bath.

Open Wounds:

A poultice made of brine (brine poultice) – When dealing with a scrape or small open wound, dilute a ½ ounce of crystal salt into a ½ cup of water. If you use too much salt, it will cause a disagreeable burning sensation. Be sure to use only non-carbonated mineral water from a purified source to treat any open wounds. Use a sterile gauze, soak it in the brine solution, squeeze some of the excess water from it and apply to the wound. Wrap a dry cloth around while also taking some Calendula, either topically as a salve or orally homeopathically, and prepare to be amazed at the power of your healing.

De-tox, Flu and Fever Relief:

The idea behind these conditions is to promote sweating.

Dip a clean cotton shirt in a 3% brine solution – 2 Tbsp. (60 ml) of crystal salt diluted in 1 Quart (1 liter) of water. Soak the shirt thoroughly and put it on. Cover (wrap) yourself in a dry towel and lay in bed (covered with your blanket.) After about half an hour you will start sweating. You can support the effect by drinking a cup of Linden blossom tea. Stay in bed for 60 to 90 minutes. Take off your shirt and shower. Lie down for one hour to rest. This procedure is an excellent detoxification tool and activates the metabolism. The brine shirt shows excellent results with high temperature viral conditions. In such cases, it is better than the brine bath.”

Brine Soaked Socks – This procedure has a similar effect as the shirt but is especially helpful when you suffer from cold feet and gout. Soak a pair of clean cotton socks in a 3-5% brine solution – 2 to 4 Tbsp. of crystal salt diluted in 1 Quart of water. Wring the sock thoroughly and put them on. Wrap your feet in a dry towel. Leave it on for about one hour. Rest awhile after you remove the salty socks. (Source: http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/sea_salt.htm)

Psoriasis:

Be sure to cure the underlying cause using the principles of Heilkunst Medicine. To promote healing, take the Solé brine daily as recommended above and also use the brine baths as illustrated above, unless you’re pregnant or have advanced circulation issues.

Herpes:

Use Heilkunst Medicine to cure the underlying cause of this persistent disease condition, as the pathic expression of the root cause will keep coming back until it is cured outright. However, to support the healing/sustentive side, you can use a sitz bath with 26% brine solution in order to relieve pain from the genital blisters (or dip cotton swab in brine and apply it to affected area), in addition to ingesting the tsp. of brine in pure water daily.

There is a dangerous myth which pervades modern health, which is based on a mechanistic view of life, and which assumes all calories to be the same. One consequence of this way of thinking is the myth of “eat less, move more”, which is based on the idea that one simply needs to burn all of the calories which they consume to maintain weight, or to burn more calories than they take in to lose weight. One of the absurd consequences you see from this faulty thinking is people leaving the gym after their workout, and heading straight to a fast food restaurant for a meal, based on the thinking that they have pre-burned all the calories they are about to consume, or at an emotional level, that they “deserve it”.

This assumption that all calories are created equal is not taking several things into account:

All aspects of health, and life more generally, are based on the qualitative aspects of life energy, and cannot be reduced to a mere quantitative measurement (such as a calorie).

Based on different body types, and nutritional needs, individuals will process the same foods differently. (“One man’s meat is another man’s poison”).

The quality of a food (how it is grown, produced, harvested, etc.) is even more important than its qualitative aspects (such as the number of calories). “Living” foods have a completely different effect on us than “dead” foods.

The source of a calorie will have a different effect on us based on its source — fats, carbohydrates, and proteins are perceived very differently by the body.

Our degree of fitness at any give point in time will determine how efficiently we process our food — therefore, taking in a calorie at one level of fitness will have a different effect than taking that same calorie in at a different level of fitness.

There is a huge difference between nutrient-dense foods, and “empty calories”. Consuming the former leads to true physiological “satisfaction”, while the latter leads to endless cycles of cravings and always needing more.

So, please stop counting your calories, and start focusing your energy on increasing the quality of your food intake, within an overall look at your lifestyle and fitness level. Likewise, the further you go with addressing your medical issues within the overall scope of medical Heilkunst, the more fine tuned your metabolism will be.

There’s a certain type of patient who comes to see me, who appears to be “doing everything right” for their health, yet they continue not to be well, and not to be improving. Maybe even more than with other patients, this groups prompts me to search much more deeply to find out what is going on below the surface.

I know that for myself, this was the situation my health was in before I started Heilkunst treatment, and I was very frustrated with my poor health. Without knowing anything about nutritional typologies (blood type, glandular type, metabolic type), which I now use extensively with most patients, I had put myself on a dietary regimen which I believed to be beneficial, but was actually the worst possible diet for my health. I am an O blood type, with a glandular dominance of the thyroid, and had I realized the implications of this, I would never have chosen a vegetarian / carb-centric diet for myself. I believed that the vegetarian lifestyle was the most healthful, and so I pushed myself further and further down this unhealthy path, until the point where I had almost no energy, and a very poorly functioning immune system.

I use this as an example of one of the ways in which a patient may believe they are doing the right things for their health, but actually making themselves worse in the process. Not having a clear understanding of typology leaves one susceptible to simply following “common sense”, or the latest best-selling diet book fad, or the industry-driven advice of the Canada Food Guide. Following the advice of empiricism, or even worse, marketing, will never be be better for you than a solid assessment based on principles.

The other huge gap in my knowledge in those years, as it is for most people, was my ignorance of the difference between the two distinct jurisdictions of regimen and medicine. Not only was I wrong in my choice of diet for myself, but I was equally wrong in believing that all health issues can be solved simply through a good diet and lifestyle. The domain of regimen is different from medicine, and attempting to solve a medical problem (ie a true disease) with regimenal changes (diet and lifestyle) is seriously misguided. Someone’s diet may actually be the perfect one for them, but if their health issues are coming from a disease rather than a dietary imbalance, then they will continue to get worse until the disease itself is addressed.

I certainly learned a lot from living through the consequences of such choices for myself, and I am glad to have a clear understanding now to help my patients who have put themselves into very similar states with their own health, based on such misguided choices.

Any substance has the potential to be applied as a homeopathic remedy, beginning with the three kingdoms of nature (mineral, plant, animal), and beyond. The remedy Lac Humanum is potentized from human mother’s milk, and is quite a fascinating study. It has many obvious emotional themes around emotional bonding, and feeling a sense of belonging, as well as more specific physical conditions related to breast health and hormone production.

Going a little more deeply, we can look at human milk amongst the group of all mammal milks (Lac Caninum is the remedy from dogs milk, for example) — what is unique about the human being compared to the animal kingdom as a whole? The human infant compared to any other newborn animal is virtually 100% dependent on others for its survival. We are very slow to develop and mature, especially when you compare animal babies that are able to walk, and do other specialized behaviours more-or-less from birth. From this point, we can also say that the human being is the greatest generalist and adaptor of the animal world. We’re not particularly good at anything (we’re not the fastest runner, climber, or swimmer, for example), yet we’re potentially capable of doing almost anything.

Another way of saying this is that animals, in their incarnation into the earth, were too impatient, and rushed ahead into their specialty, where they become locked. The human incarnation into the earth came last and develops the slowest (as is mirrored by the slow maturation of a baby), yet we have the furthest to go. Looking at Lac Humanum from this perspective, we can see that it can be useful in a more general sense where a patient has lost their flexibility or creativity, and has lost their ability to see their way forward in their life and aspiration.

One fascinating doorway into diagnosis is through a patient’s food cravings. There are many aspects to cravings, and different reasons for their existence — from basic nutritional imbalances, to influences coming from different diseased states of mind. I’ll present a sampling of some different cravings and their possible meanings, but this list is far from exhaustive, and leaves many more possibilities unspoken.

Imbalances in the glandular typology — Based on the patient’s dominant gland type, an state of imbalance will lead to particular food cravings. An imbalanced thyroid type, for example, will crave refined carbs (bread, cakes, cookies, etc.), sugars, and stimulants such as caffein. An out-of-balance adrenal type will crave rich, salty foods, high in cholesterol, as well as alcohol. The problem with these glandular imbalances, once the person starts to stimulate themselves with these craving foods, is that it becomes a downward spiral where they crave these foods more and more, have less and less energy, and begin to gain weight.

An expression of the patient’s healthy constitution (genotype) — Different genotypes will have a relationship to certain foods as basic preferences. These aren’t cravings under normal circumstances, but can become so under more stressed circumstances. A phosphorous, for example, has a natural preference for salty foods, but they may start craving them to excess under stress. They also tend to enjoy very spicy foods. A Pulsatilla constitution may crave fatty foods, including butter (watch out for those pulsatilla children who tend to stick their fingers right into the butter dish to scoop out a treat!), and these may increase as full blown cravings when under stress (which would typically be a relationship issue for Pulsatilla).

An expression of an underlying disease state (of mind) — This category is large and quite interesting, as it includes many types of cravings which are not accounted for by the usual factors of nutritional imbalances or deficiencies. A state of unresolved grief, for example, represented by the remedy Natrum Muriaticum, will have a tremendous craving for salty foods. (It takes a well honed diagnostician to tell the difference between this salt craving from a Phosphorous salt craving). The reasons for having strong cravings for alcohol are many and varied, but to pick one remedy as an example, Lachesis, would relate to an emotional state related to many pent-up, undischarged emotions which seeks to have some way of trying to dissipate them (although the alcohol doesn’t actually provide a true discharge).

This is a very brief sampling to give you a taste of some of the thinking and differential diagnosis required to properly understand the meaning of a craving. I often find these symptoms some of the most useful in clinic, as they tend to be strong and distinct patterns in the patient seeking to be resolved.